John T. and Mamie Christian House

(Below in italics is from the 1984 National Register listing; not verified for accuracy by this author.)

Large two-story frame foursquare built late 1910s and identical, except for later conversion to duplex, to Russell-Webb House at 811 Vickers Ave. Its builder, J. T, Christian, began his career as vice president and general manager of Cary Lumber Co. and later founded Christian Printing Co., of which he was a lifelong president. When the East-West Expressway took the Christian Printing building in the early 1970s, the firm merged with Colonial Press to become Creative Printers in Chapel Hill. Four of Christian's children made their homes nearby on Shepherd St.

(The information below in italics is from the Preservation Durham Plaque Application for the John T. and Mamie Christian House)

This commodious family dwelling was built for John Thomas Christian and his family in 1921. The house remained in the Christian family for more than fifty years. 

The subdivision where the house at 704 Shepherd Street is located was laid out in 1902 to resolve a lawsuit between William D. Vickers and Paul Proctor. The court charged commissioners James S. Manning and William J. Christian with dividing a larger parcel into streets and lots and selling the lots at auction. In compliance with the court's order, Manning and Christian hired E. C. Belvin to survey the property into streets and lots and create the plat that is now filed in the Durham County registry on page 26 in Plat Book 5A. James Manning and William Christian were neighbors on Mangum Street. Christian had been Durham's mayor. Manning would be North Carolina's Attorney General from 1917 until 1925. The subdivision they created as the court's commissioners was at the southern edge of Durham, just beyond the millionaires' neighborhood of Morehead Hill. 

In 1903, commissioners Manning and Christian, sold five lots in the subdivision to John B. Christian. Two of the lots, 37 and 38, each roughly 60' x 130,' faced Jackson Street at its intersection with Shepherd Street. John B. Christian was William J. Christian's brother and served as Durham's Commissioner of Streets. John Christian died in 1908 and in 1909 his heirs divided his land holdings including the lots in the Proctor subdivision. Lots 37 and 38 went to John Christian's unmarried daughter, Minnie Christian. She held on to the property until 1919. At some point after John Christian's purchase in 1903 and before the publication of the 1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Durham, two small houses were built on lots 37 and 38. According to the Sanborn map for the area, the houses were one-story frame buildings. In erecting these two dwellings, the Christians, Minnie or her father, John, ignored the lot lines dividing lots 37 and 38. Instead the land was treated as if it were a single parcel. The houses were not oriented toward Jackson Street like the lots. Instead, they faced Shepherd Street. The houses were crowded toward the southern end of the property as if the corner space was to be reserved for a third house. Neither John nor Minnie Christian lived in the two houses. In all probability they were rental properties. 

In 1919, Minnie Christian sold the land that had been lots 37 and 38 on the 1902 plat to R. L. Baldwin and J. L. Vaughan. Her deed to these grantees reconfigured the land into two new parcels oriented toward Shepherd Street. The dividing line between them was laid between the two rental houses then on the property. Because the houses were clustered at the southern end of the property, the corner lot measured 85' x 120.' The lower lot was only 42' x 120.' Only a few weeks later, Baldwin and Vaughan sold the same properties to James Hillary Coman. Mr. Coman, a foreman and estimator for the Cary Lumber Company, was married to Minnie Christian's cousin once removed, Pearle Christian Coman. In two conveyances in 1921 and 1922, the Comans changed the dividing line between the two properties again, selling the southern portion to Pearle's father, John Thomas Christian. John Thomas Christian's father, James N. Christian, was brother to both William Jasper Christian, who with James Manning created the subdivision and sold the lots, and John B. Christian, Minnie's father, who first purchased the Jackson Street lots. 

It was in the interval between 1919 and 1922 that the original two houses on the property were moved or demolished and the current houses at 704 and 702 Shepherd Street were erected. The deed evidence suggests that the Christian family desired to use the Minnie Christian property as home sites for the John T. Christians and the Comans. Minnie Christian sold the land to Baldwin and Vaughan to enable them to remove the two still relatively new rental houses to other lots nearby (there are a number of "Triple- A❞ houses on Shepherd Street that conform to the description of the houses provided by the 1913 Sanborn map). With the land cleared, Coman reacquired the property and divided it more evenly with his father-in-law so that each could build a new, more fashionably appointed home. John T. Christian built the subject house at 704 Shepherd and the Comans built their shingle-clad front gable bungalow on the corner at 702 Shepherd at roughly the same time.

The house at 704 Shepherd Street was built in 1921. It is a two-story, double-pile, modified I-plan house. While today the house is divided into three dwelling units, it was originally built as a large single-family residence for the John T. Christian family. The architect and builder of the house are unknown, but it bears similarities to contemporaneous Durham houses designed by the Rose & Rose and H. C. Linthicum firms. The house is a wood-frame structure resting on a continuous brick foundation. On the lower level, the house is clad with wide claps. The upper story is clad with shingles laid in a decorative pattern with two short courses between every wide course. There is a noticeable flair where the bottom shingle course meets the clapboard siding on the lower level. The unbroken shingle courses and flair between the stories parallel the deep roof cornice. Together these elements emphasize the horizontal in a way that is consistent with the Prairie Style houses of the time. The broad pediment in the porch roof and the pedimented gable at the roof line above the porch are supported by oversized knee brackets consistent with Craftsman Style houses. The roof overhangs are supported by exposed rafter tails - also a craftsman feature. 

Originally the house presented a symmetrical façade to the street. The front door was once located in the center of the façade, but was moved slightly to the right when an additional door was added to provide separate access to a retrofitted staircase to the two upstairs units. The porch is deep and runs the entire length of the front of the house. It is supported by four craftsman style columns each consisting of a pier made of rusticated granite stones capped with a granite coping. The mortar joints in the piers are raked in a bullnose. This way of joining granite stones was fashionable at the time and expensive. Atop each pier is a truncated pyramidal box column with molding at the base and the cap. The rail between the piers is supported by a solid half-wall which is shingle clad. The porch is reached by a broad shallow granite stair flanked by low granite walls. 

A pair of double-hung sash windows flank the doorways. The sashes in these window openings (and nearly all of the other windows of the house) are recent replacements. Above the porch roof is an interesting arrangement of windows consisting of a central pair of smaller windows and an outer pair of larger windows. This arrangement accommodates the upward slant of the porch roof to its peak. On either side of these windows is a single double-hung sash window. The light arrangement of the replaced original windows is unknown. The walls on either side of the house are pierced by similar windows in singles and pairs. While the sashes are new, the window openings and frames are all original. 

The rear pile of the house project at a 20 inch articulation on the north side. This projection is not repeated on the south side of the house. At the rear of the house there is a one story projection that contains the kitchen and what was originally an incorporated open porch.

The roof of the house is essentially pyramidal. Two symmetrically arranged brick chimneys emerge on either side of the roof peak. These retain their corbelled caps. The bricks used in the chimneys are wire-striated. The original chimney for the cook stove at the rear of the house also survives. 

The interior of the house is arranged in a modified I-plan - a central hall running the depth of the house with rooms on either side. The principal modification of this arrangement is that the larger of the two front parlors of the house was originally extended inward to occupy what would have been the front portion of the hall. The original front door, located in the center of the façade, opened into the spacious "public" parlor. The rear portion of the hall is the original stair hall of the house. In the late 1950s, the house was divided into three dwelling units. The lower floor became one unit and the second floor of the house was divided into two apartments. To provide access to the upper apartments directly from the outside, an enclosed staircase was carved from the larger "public" parlor. The original front door of the house was shifted a few feet to the north and a new door leading into the staircase was added. This accounts for the slightly off-center arrangement of two doors on the front of the present house. The new staircase made the larger original stair at the rear of the house essentially vestigial. 

In the original plan, a smaller family parlor in the southeast corner of the house joined the public parlor through a door opening the ghost of which can still be seen in the wall of the retrofitted staircase. 

The ceilings in the lower level of the house are ten-and-a-half feet high. The original oak floors remain in the downstairs rooms. Nearly all of the original casework remains in place. The baseboards and door and window frames are all original. The door and window frames are topped with an entablature - a typical feature popular as long as ceilings were relatively high. The interior doors are original. They possess one-over-one plywood panels. Originally they would have been stained a dark mahogany and varnished. They are painted now. Most of these doors retain their original glass knobs and hardware. This type of door gained increasing popularity during the 1920s and eventually replaced the five- and six-paneled doors which were common from the late Victorian period through the first decades of the twentieth century. The interior walls are sand-finished plaster on wood lath.

 
In the public parlor the paneled and bracketed fireplace surround with its mirror over mantel are original. The house was originally provided with steam or hot water heat and here and there radiators are still in place. The coal fireplaces in the principal rooms downstairs were meant to provide supplemental heat. In 1921, central heating was imperfect and expensive. In the South at the time many houses we equipped with both boilers and working fireplaces. The fireplaces retain their original colored tile surrounds. The mantels are dressed with mahogany veneer, but are now painted. 

Behind the family parlor on the southern side of the house is the downstairs or "parlor bedroom" - a common feature of Victorian houses that lasted until the mid- 1920s. This was usually the best bedroom and possessed the best fittings and trim. Across the hall, behind the public parlor on the north side of the house, is the original dining room. Beyond it is the original butler's pantry or breakfast nook. The kitchen space is original, but the present day cabinets are later additions. The house originally had a cookstove and the chimney and flue for this large appliance are still in evidence. Beyond the kitchen is a porch where the icebox was kept. There it was away from the heat of the cookstove and the porch provided easy access for the iceman. 

The original stair in the hall is wide and tall. The stair rises on the right-hand side of the space and turns to the left. The tall newel is a simple capped box typical of the period. The heavy moulded handrail is supported by full one-inch palings set three to a stair tread. This stair is no longer in use. 

Upstairs there are three family bedrooms, an original bathroom space, and space that may have been intended originally as a servant's room. The space at the front to the house between the front bedrooms was originally a "sewing room" - a space reserved for domestic projects or to provide storage for items which needed to be ready to hand. These upstairs spaces are now divided into separate apartments on the north and south sides of the house. They are reached by the new front stair. The division of the upstairs into apartment could be easily reversed, although removal of the front stair may be more complicated. The floors upstairs are of quarter-sawn pine - a quality material, but not as costly as the oak downstairs. The upstairs ceilings are lower than those downstairs. There are no fireplaces upstairs. 

John Thomas Christian was born in Durham in 1873. He was a member of the large Thomas Christian family. The Christians came to Orange County North Carolina from Virginia in the 18th century and became prominent in the business and political life of Durham in the later years of the 19th century. John Thomas Christian's parents were James Newton Christian and Nancy Proctor Christian. James Newton Christian was a carpenter and builder. John T. Christian's uncle William Jasper Christian was a merchant, grist mill owner, and director of the First national Bank of Durham. He served two terms as Durham's mayor. See, generally, The History of North Carolina: North Carolina Biography, vol. V, p. 268. Another uncle, John B. Christian, was Durham's commissioner of streets, a sort of director of public works for the new city. 

John Thomas Christian was a printer by trade. In 1921, at the time his family first occupied its new house on Shepherd Street, Christian owned and operated The J. T. Christian Press at 212 North Corcoran Street. He had founded the business in Durham in 1904. In the middle 1920s, Christian had taken Mr. Isham King into the business. The firm then became the Christian & King Printing Company with King as vice-president. At that time Christian's sons Linwood and Fred were also working with the firm. The association with King was short-lived and by 1929, King had departed and the business was simply called the Christian Printing Co. It was also at this time that the firm moved from Corcoran Street to 124 West Parrish Street. J. T. Christian and his sons, Linwood and Fred Christian, operated the business from the Parrish Street address until the elder Christian's death in 1953. His sons continued to operate the business after that. 

According to his 1918 World War I draft card, J. T. Christian was of medium height and build. His eyes were gray and his hair was light. 

J. T. Christian and his wife, Mamie Croom Christian, had six children, Mamie, Irene, Pearle Stuart, Nannie Ruth, John Fred, Nell E., and Linwood Barrett Christian. By the time the family moved into the house at 704 Shepherd, Mamie Irene had married John Thompson Craig and moved from the family home. Her sister, Pearle, had also married and moved. It was Pearle's husband, James Hillary Coman, who had purchased the Minnie Christian lots and divided them with his father-in-law, J. T. Christian. The Coman family lived next door at 702 Shepherd for decades. In 1921, J. T., Mamie, and their four younger children all moved into the new house at 704 Shepherd Street. 

In the early years, the elder Christians shared the large Shepherd Street house with their children when they married. Their daughter, Nannie Ruth, and her husband Leon Upchurch lived at 704 Shepherd until 1926 when they moved down the street to 904 Shepherd. Leon worked at Southern Feed and Grocery on West Main Street. Ruth was a school teacher. From 1929 until 1933, the Christians' son Fred and his wife Martha lived at 704 Shepherd with his parents. Fred worked with his father and his brother at the family printing business. Martha worked at the Fidelity bank. In 1933, Fred and Martha Christian moved to their own home at 709 Shepherd Street. In 1934, Linwood Christian's wife Ethel joined the Christian family at the house. The Linwood Christians would live with his parents at 704 Shepherd until 1942 when they moved their own home on Dollar Avenue. Like his brother Fred, Linwood worked at the family printing business. Ethel worked at the Ellis Stone department store downtown. 

The Christians also took in boarders. In 1925, Miss Wynona Chaney became a boarder with the Christian family. She worked a secretary for Temple Baptist Church. Miss Chaney lived at 704 Shepherd Street with the Christian family until 1960. Her relationship with the Christian family is not fully understood. Miss Chaney was born in 1891 and died in 1976. She is entombed at Temple Baptist Church. Although she was not a boarder, Mamie Thompson's widowed mother Mary Croom lived with her daughter and son-in-law on Shepherd Street in the mid-1920s. According to the 1926 city directory, Arthur Stephenson, a student, and Clarence Jones, a clerk at Christopher Delamar's lived with the Christian family. That year the house must have been a busy place. The 1930 census lists a school teacher, Kate Gillam as a boarder in addition to Miss Chaney. 

The Christian's youngest daughter, Nell, became a teacher and taught at North Durham Elementary School. She moved from the Shepherd Street home in 1934. She married Everett Broadus Weatherspoon. 
From 1942 until 1951, the only known occupants of the house at 704 Shepherd were John T. Christian, his wife Mamie, and Miss Chaney. In 1951, Mamie Christian died. Her death certificate indicates that she died on February 4 of hypertension. On October 14, 1953, John T. Christian also died. He was 80 years old. His death certificate recites coronary thrombosis as the cause of his death. The Christians are buried in the Christian-Upchurch-Weatherspoon plot in section 1, Annex B in Maplewood Cemetery surrounded by many of their children, their children's spouses, and their grandchildren. Interestingly, the plot next to the Christians to the right belongs to their daughter Pearle Coman and her husband James. The Christians and Coman plots are organized in Maplewood Cemetery just as their homes were organized on Shepherd Street. 

Following J. T. Christian's death, Pearle Coman bought her parent's house at 704 Shepherd Street from her father's estate. She continued to live next door, but her sister Ruth Upchurch moved into the house and lived there with Miss Chaney. Ruth was by then a widow. Her husband, Leon Upchurch, had committed suicide by shooting himself in the head on July 22, 1945. See his death certificate. 

In the middle 1950s, the large house was divided into three dwelling units. The downstairs living area was one unit and the upstairs was divided into two apartments. To reach these, a staircase was cut from the larger downstairs parlor and a second front door was added to the house. Ruth Upchurch continued to live in the house until the 1960s. Miss Chaney, the Christian's friend, lived with her until about 1960. The other apartments were occupied by a succession of tenants, often married Duke University students. 

In 1969, Pearle Coman conveyed 704 Shepherd to her son John Coman and his wife, Camille. They kept the property until 1973 when they sold it to Richard and Sarah Holt. This transaction brought to a close more than fifty years of ownership in the Christian family. 

During the tenure of the Holts and their successors, David and Donna Rabiner and the applicant, Rand Neyland, the house has been used as investment property and occupied by a succession of tenants. 

The house at 704 Shepherd Street is located within the Morehead Hill National Register and Durham local historic districts. For plaque purposes it should be called either the John Thomas Christian House or the J. T. and Mamie Christian House. It is called the Christian House in the 1985 National Register nomination. This insufficiently descriptive because, as even the nomination notes, four of J. T. and Mamie Christian's children made their homes on Shepherd Street. Other members of the larger Christian family owned property in and lived in the vicinity.